Education at a Glance

Centre for Educational Research and Innovation

OECD's annual Education at a Glance looks at who participates in education, what is spent on it, how education systems operate and the results achieved. The latter includes indicators on a wide range of outcomes, from comparisons of students’ performance in key subject areas to the impact of education on earnings and on adults’ chances of employment. This book includes StatLinks, urls linking to Excel® spreadsheets containing the background data.

The 2005 edition of Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators provides a rich, comparable and up-to-date array of indicators on the performance of education systems. In doing so, it represents the consensus of professional thinking on how to measure the current state of education internationally.

The indicators look at who participates in education, what is spent on it and how education systems operate, and at the results achieved. The latter includes indicators on a wide range of outcomes ranging from comparisons of student performance in key subject areas to the impact of education on earnings and adults’ chances of employment.

New material in this edition includes results of the 2003 survey of OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA); data on the distribution of earnings for individuals with different educational levels as well as first evidence of non-economic outcomes of education; comparisons of the participation of labour force members in continuing education and training; an analysis of student learning time out of school; a comparison between the performance of public and private schools, and data on the policies and practices secondary school systems employ to differentiate among students and the impact of these on outcomes.

ExcelTM spreadsheets used to create the tables and charts in this book are available via the StatLinks printed in this book.

Table of Contents

Foreword Executive Summary Introduction: The Indicators and their Framework Readers GuideChapter A: The Output of Educational Institutions and the Impact of Learning -Indicator A1: Educational Attainment of the Adult Population -Indicator A2: Current Upper Secondary Graduation Rates -Indicator A3: Current Tertiary Graduation Rates -Indicator A4: What 15-Year-Olds Can Do in Mathematics -Indicator A5: What 15-Year-Olds Can Do in Problem Solving -Indicator A6: Between- and Within-School Variation in the Mathematics Performance of 15-Year-Olds -Indicator A7: Mathematics and Science Achievement of Eighth-Grade Students (2003 and 1995) -Indicator A8: Labour Force Participation by Level of Educational Attainment -Indicator A9: The Returns to Education: Education and Earnings -Indicator A10: The Returns to Education: Links between Education, Economic Growth and Social OutcomesChapter B: Financial and Human Resources Invested in Education -Indicator B1: Educational Expenditure per Student -Indicator B2: Expenditure on Educational Institutions Relative to Gross Domestic Product -Indicator B3: Public and Private Investment in Educational Institutions -Indicator B4: Total Public Expenditure on Education -Indicator B5: Support for Students and Households through Public Subsidies -Indicator B6: Expenditure in Institutions by Service Category and by Resource CategoryChapter C: Access to Education, Participation and Progression -Indicator C1: Enrolment in Education from Primary Education to Adult Life -Indicator C2: Participation in Secondary and in Tertiary Education -Indicator C3: Foreign Students in Tertiary Education -Indicator C4: Education and Work Status of the Youth Population -Indicator C5: The Situation of the Youth Population with Low Levels of Education -Indicator C6: Participation in Continuing Education and TrainingChapter D: The Learning Environment and Organisation of Schools -Indicator D1: Total Intended Instruction Time for Students in Primary and Secondary Education -Indicator D2: Class Size and Ratio of Students to Teaching Staff -Indicator D3: Teachers’ Salaries -Indicator D4: Teaching Time and Teachers’ Working Time -Indicator D5: Public and Private Providers -Indicator D6: Institutional Differentiation Annex 1: Characteristics of Educational Systems Annex 2: Reference statistics Annex 3: Sources, Methods and Technical Notes References